Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund Asset Flows for March 2014

CHICAGO, April 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows for March 2014. Investors added $39.2 billion to long-term mutual funds in March, driven by continued strong flows to developed international markets and a rebound in flows to intermediate-term bond funds. Morningstar estimates net flow by computing the change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund. Click here for a full explanation of Morningstar's methodology.

In March, Fidelity transferred $6.5 billion from equity mutual funds to collective investment trusts. This move dragged down inflows for U.S.-equity mutual funds, which totaled $2.8 billion for the month. But because of this transfer, these mild inflows do not necessarily reflect negative investor sentiment toward equities.

Excluding the transfer of Fidelity's mutual fund assets to collective investment trusts, PIMCO was the only fund provider among the top 10 to see net outflows in the first quarter.

Among international-equity funds, which took in $11.0 billion in March, foreign large blend led all categories with inflows of $6.6 billion. Diversified emerging-markets funds rebounded from February outflows to attract inflows of $1.1 billion in March.

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About Morningstar, Inc.Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Morningstar provides data on approximately 446,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 10 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its registered investment advisor subsidiaries and had approximately $159 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Dec. 31, 2013. The company has operations in 27 countries.